Tag Archives: pumps

OK, here is what we know. EcoTech, one of our favorite equipment manufacturers, is working on a new product line named ReefLink which includes a controller for managing their products via the proprietary wireless RF signal. Since it has been 18 months since the Radion was released, and there is still no support for programming these lights via the Neptune WXM interface for the Apex controllers, we can assume that either there is a technical challenge or Neptune is simply waiting for Ecotech to release their new unified controller. Both companies have gone on the record saying that programming the WXM to manage a Radion is a fairly easy thing to do, so if that is the case, why hasn’t it been done yet? Neptune recently announced their “Apex Ready” certification, and we might be guessing here but Ecotech does not want to get into the business of building probe and outlet control systems. So we expect this new product to manage their lights and pumps, and can itself be managed by an Apex or hopefully both an Apex and the competing RKE. Also, as we’ve said here before, the Ecotech Ecosmart Live is half a solution, requiring users to have a computer hooked up at all times if you want to manage the system remotely. We have yet to hear of anyone actually doing this. One major advantage that Ecotech has is that they have already built a web service allowing remote computers to automatically connect to their network for programming, but this is an app that runs on a PC. A great idea, in our opinion, would be for the new ReefLink to support automatic connections to their server. Why is this important? If you have a controller and manage it remotely, you probably had to set up a feature called NAT/PAT on your home router. In fact, some users are unable to use any remote controller system because they are in a corporate or secure environment and cannot configure NAT/PAT as they do not have access to their router. The solution to this problem is for a controller to initiate the connection outbound to a server so that outbound NAT is automatically setup by the router or firewall. We have our fingers crossed that Ecotech knows that this is a really cool feature to have and eliminates the need to have people mess around with their home network. … More:

This is, for now, the last post on our testing with various pumps, we hope to soon have others to compare with these tests. Today we talk about the Tunze Silence, and in particular 1073.020, 1073.040, and 1073.050. All in accordance to what you can read in our introduction: Return Pumps: tests and real measurements compared

Let’s start with this article to speak about the numbers resulting from our tests, following the introduction that you can read here: Return Pumps: tests and real measurements compared, now we begin to analyze the first pump we had from Eheim, the Eheim 1048.

The project of the return pumps is now old and started with the previous article “return pumps: calculating the flow” that I invite you to read, and where I proposed an excel file, downloadable, editable with most of the pumps on the market, which were often recommended as return pumps in the forums and among hobbyists. The file made possible from the data of the pumps and the prevalence of each tank, get a pump flow rate calculated for each individual pump.

Although the file would be updated by anyone, I was always curious to know how pumps would behave in reality as well as declared by individual manufacturers.

During the Zoomark held in Bologna, Italy last year, we decided to contact some companies in the aquarium industry to do a comparative test of the pumps.

Some have enthusiastically joined, in true alphabetical order, Eheim, Tunzeand Sicce, and they have provided the pumps subject of our comprensive test.… More:

In Hall n.4 of course we visited also the italian Sicce booth that also housed LGMAquari. Sicce is a famous brand that make and sell pumps in all the world, LGMAquari instead is a small italian company that create very good skimmers and calcium reactor and now very close to Sicce. Our hosts were then Geppy (LGMAquari) and Federico (Sicce), who have first stuffed us with limoncelloDOC, coffee and everything else and then they has informed about their news

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